Happy Midterm Elections!

[FuXnDajenariht]

Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld just resigned!

[FuXnDajenariht]

he committed the equivalent of politicial seppuku methinks. leave before they fire me.....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15622266/?GT1=8717

[FuXnDajenariht]

6 months... I shoulda said 6 hours. The war criminal just resigned!

lol you beat me to it.....

[Baqualin]

I can't believe you all are talking politic's on a kung fu forum, plus acting like there's going to be a major change......garbage in garbage out.

[FuXnDajenariht]

dont act like such a clown. out of the half dozen political threads we have each month you chose to b!tch about this one? lemme guess...you voted Republican and now they're the minority, so your gonna act like a baby about it.

this midterm election was probably the most important one that we've had in a long long time and it was used to send a clear message to the snickering "royalty" up in Washington. do you think Rumsfeld would of resigned if not for the results yesterday? you seriously can't be that naive. what his resignation means to me is: "message received". even if it was political maneuvering on the Presidents part to take away steam from the Dems its still a major change that would not have occured if not for the election.

so yea garbage in, garbage out...keep takin it up the a$$ from the government....

[@PLUGO]

Rummy's been set out to pasture... though I'd prefer Exile to say the least.

Looks like the senate could end up 50-50 though Virgina racist George Allen may come to his senses and not ask for a recount.


one can only hope this means a slightly less corrupt and slightly more accountable government in the near future.


There probably worse things than a post impeachment President Pelosi thought . . .

[FuXnDajenariht]

The World Weighs-in on the U.S. Election.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15618695/

[GLW]

OK...let me be the first to bring some thngs up...

First, don't expect major changes. Bush had a do nothing Congress when he had both controlled by his party. they had 5 years plus to do things...

With the opposing party in charge of the House now...and when the smoke clears, maybe in charge of the Senate, they have a majority...but Bush still holds the veto and pocket veto...and there is NOT a 2/3 majority there likely to override a presidential veto.

So, the things that CAN happen are those that do not require a presidential signature or those things that are within the presidential agenda... and DON'T forget his infamous signing statements.

Then there are the voting machines. I will make no pretense, I am glad the Democrats seem to have won. But, even so, the electronic voting needs to be revamped with a verifiable paper trail

What needs to happen : one option:

You go to vote, you sign in and get a dongle key to the voting machine.
You vote and it spits out a paper ballot. You review it and when you are in agreement, you take the paper ballot and the dongle to the election desk. They take the dongle, you put the paper in the ballot box. The act of taking the dongle out of the machine commits the vote as well electronically.
Now, when the election is over, a percent is mandated to be picked lottery style for verification count. AFTER the election is over. That way, no one can make sure the precincts counted are the only ones that are right.
Those precincts must match the paper ballots or double the percent of precincts must be counted. If there is more of a discrepancy, 15% of the precincts are counted by hand. If there is still a problem, the entire state must be recounted AND the BILL for this goes to the manufacturer of the voting machine.

This is an easy and modifiable approach... and COULD have been done on the machines in use.....but WHY not?

Last time, I suggested fixing the voting machines were flawed...and was accused of sour grapes. NOW...the folks I liked won..and I am suggesting it again...

[FuXnDajenariht]

not to sound all conspiratorial but i wonder if the race for Senate would of been this close if not for electronic voting. one election analyst says the house and senate were never split like this before.

[wdl]

I'm going to post only once on this thread, you can say what you want to about my points, I don't care. Let me explain this, I am a conservative not a neo con, or a Barry Goldwater special, just politically conservative, I'll vote for whoever best reflects that on the ballot regardless of party, particularly on a local level.

As a conservative I'm happy about yesterday for only one reason, the republicans will be FORCED to start representing ME again instead of just trying to hold onto power. Congress has been a stagnant pool for years now where BOTH parties go to play and waste time.

Dems/Libs: Celebrate while you can. Just remember how much of a fight it was while you had power when the republicans were in the underdog position. Democrats one by one during the 80s/90s would say, "we need a tax increase to cover cost x, y and z", one by one they would get defeated in election, and it's been downhill for the liberals ever since. Look at happened to Bush Sr. and "No new Taxes", he didn't get reelected. If republicans are smart they will start debating again on tried and true conservative issues such as, omg, government spending. Now, I know all of the dems promised to cut government spending during the elections, it's a page out of the republican handbook. They at this juncture have an opporitunity to change their track record on government management. If they do it, it'll be a shock, and it will be the thing that keeps their newly regained power, not endless investigations.

The truth of the investigation matter is that if it had been a democratic president and a democratic congress loosing it's majority this year the republicans would be crying they were going to start investigations. Big freaking deal, rarely has a high profile investigation from either side of the isle in the past 25 years really amounted to anything. Examples: Oliver North, Bill Clinton, Carl Rove and Valerie Plame, etc. Clinton got impeached, big deal flippen deal. The only investigations that usually carry any clout are handled by the justice department and are ended in conviction. The repubs probably got caught with their hand in the cookie jar and the American people know it. It's not like the dems haven't had their hand it in either.

Many libs/dems were downtrodden just a year ago about he future of the Democratic party and feared it was going to die. Running some conservative candidates in select districts and states was a smart move and won congress back, a very important step in surviving. The voters put the ball in your court, prove your worthy of it as most of the republicans weren't and do something.

Edit: Didn't hit the iraq issue:

Don't think America is in love with Democrats all of a sudden, America said a change of policy in Iraq is needed and we are going to force the issue. They forced it. The dems can't really force the troops out of Iraq, but the president needed to change policy and we've seen that already happening today. If he'd made these changes MONTHS ago, the election probably would have been completely different. The republicans in congress aren't entirely to blame for their defeat.

This is a fairly narrowly divided country, and most people haven't been head over hills for either political party for a LONG time now. If the dems don't ante up, they'll be punished just as the republicans had it coming to them.

[FuXnDajenariht]

thats all fine and well wdl, but i dont really give 2 sh!ts about Democrats either, let alone Republican. to tell the truth they both have no idea what their doing. its just common sense not have too much power in the hand of 1 party for any period of time. you've seen the end result. im waiting for the day when a politician will stop using the liberal/conservative ideals as a godda.mn crutch and just govern with some common sense.

[Chief Fox]

So what is going to happen now?

Some people are saying that GW will just be a lame duck for the next two years. Some are saying that he will get out his veto pen.

What needs to happen IMO is this. GW needs to decide what his legacy is going to be.

Does he want to continue to be known as the president that was in office when the nation was most unified (right after 911) and turned it into a nation that has never been more divided (right after the last election)?

Does he want to continue to be known as the president who went to war under false pretences?

Does he want to continue to be the president who is in favor of a war that most people are not in favor of?

He needs to ask himself these questions. The choice is now his.

The people have spoken. After the last election he said that the people have granted him a certain amount of political capital and that he intended to spend it. Well he has spent it. In fact, he's over spent it. He's on credit and the bill collectors are knocking at his door.

Will he "stay the course" or will he work with the new majority?

My guess is he will "stay the course" and eventually be know as a man who lied to his people and divided a nation.

[Anthony]

I'm sure all of our lives are now gonna change so drastically.....oh wait....I still have to go to work tomorrow and pay my bills......darn! I thought, with the election, that things in my life would actually be different the next day

[The Willow Sword]

Minimum Wage will get increased. That's about it. yay

[FuXnDajenariht]

buncha whiners....